Background: As a core part of its role in CARE’s networked model, the CARE International Secretariat was mandated by the Board in November 2015 to develop and host an accountability framework. The need for an accountability framework is based on several factors:

• The alignment around the CARE 2020 Program Strategy, to which all parts of CI are responsible to contribute, and the commitment to common impact goals;

• CI’s increasing interdependence and decision to move to a networked approach to enhance organisational effectiveness and drive shared priorities, with the accompanying need for the ‘glue’ of accountability lines and mechanisms to bind that network;

• The demand by those implementing programs for a systematic approach and guidance;

• The external drive for more accountable development in line with the changing role of INGOs and the Sustainable Development Goals; and

• CARE’s active membership in Accountable Now (formerly INGO Accountability Charter) and other key external commitments such as the Core Humanitarian Standard

Below is the organisation wide Accountability Framework

CARE International Accountability Framework

CARE is committed to accountable, just and sustainable development that benefits and upholds the rights of the most vulnerable and excluded communities around the world, especially women and girls. A core part of our work is promoting inclusive governance and processes for citizens to interact with and interrogate governments and institutions to strengthen their performance. We recognise that as a large international organisation, we too must be held to account. CARE defines accountability as explaining, being held responsible for and hearing the perspectives of others about how well we are meeting our commitments - and then actively making changes and improvements based on what we’ve learned and heard.

We have committed to deliver a bold set of impact goals, to collaborate with others to do so and to perform in a way that makes the best use of the resources entrusted to us. Throughout we are committed to behaving as an open, transparent organisation that is set up to encourage participation in shaping our work and hearing feedback on how we are doing. We use a CARE wide Accountability Framework to regularly collect, analyse and discuss a mix of data, information and evidence to assess these commitments and answer the following questions:

To what extent are we making progress against our impact goals and shared priorities? What gaps to we need to address, where do we need to accelerate? How vibrant is our network overall, and each CARE office within it? Where are the areas for improvement and organisational development? How well are we collaborating with key stakeholders and engaging key constituents? How do they regard us? To what extent are we modeling the principles of transparency, feedback and participation in our internal ways of working and externally?

Our Commitments

Impact:CARE and our partners’ contribution to bringing about sustainable change in the fight against poverty and injustice, specifically through our commitment to support 150 million people from the most vulnerable and excluded communities to overcome poverty and social injustice by 2020. We measure this through a set of 25 global outcome and change indicators.

Organisational Performance: CARE commits to being an efficient, effective and equitable organisation that makes best use of the resources entrusted to us to deliver on our impact. We assess the health of our network, our ways of working, the progress on our strategic directions and our future-oriented organisational development. We monitor performance standards and analyse key programmatic, financial, human resource, gender and good governance data. We also assess how well we are upholding our internal policies and meeting the external commitments we have publically signed on to.

Collaboration:CARE believes in the power of collaboration for greater impact, and is committed to strengthening how we partner and engage with others. We evaluate the relevance and strength of our collaborations – the wide range of actors and communities with whom we partner, those who fund our work, those who mobilise with us to influence change and the governments that host us – and how well we enable and unleash the potential of these collaborations.

CARE integrates our core accountability principles throughout and monitors how well we are enacting them: